French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made headlines in France by returning to a theme once common with him, but that he seemed to have abandoned: the importance of France’s Christian heritage, reports LifeSiteNews.com. Speaking before a crowd of dignitaries in the ancient town of Puy-en-Velay, a key location in the history of French religious devotion, Sarkozy vigorously defended the importance of the Christian contribution to the cultural foundations of France. ‘Christianity has left to us a magnificent heritage. I am the president of a secular republic, but I can say this because it is the truth. I am not proselytizing,’ he told the group. He added, ‘Chartres, Amiens, Reims, Strasbourg, Paris, none of these towns would be today what they are in the eyes of the French and the eyes of the rest of the world without these cathedrals on which the faithful and tourists always converge.’

Pray: that President Sarkozy’s comments on the importance of Christian heritage would be widely accepted. (Ps.119:111)

More: http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue12442.html

French legislators rejected a bill to legalize ‘homosexual marriage’ today in a decisive vote by the National Assembly, the nation’s lower legislative house, reports LifeSiteNews.com. Assembly representatives voted against the bill, proposed by socialists, by a majority of 293 to 222. The vote follows a ruling in January by the nation’s highest court, the Constitutional Council, stating that homosexual ‘marriage’ is not a constitutional right. Although a recent and much-cited poll found that a majority of French voters, 58 percent, favour the creation of homosexual ‘marriage,’ Michel Difenbacher of the majority Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party said he thought it not necessary ‘to go with the wind nor to cede to fashion’ with regard to the issue. ‘We are against homophobia but we do not want to alter the image and function of marriage within society', Difenbacher said.

Pray: that this decision will be accepted by the people.

More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/french-national-assembly-rejects-homosexual-marriage-in-historic-vote

French police are holding nine suspected Islamists as part of an anti-terrorism investigation. Three were arrested last Tuesday in southern France. The other six detained last Monday in the Paris area have been described by the Interior Minister Manuel Valls as ‘particularly dangerous’. They are being questioned by anti-terrorist investigators at Levallois, north of the capital. By law they can be held for up to four days. Monday’s raids by anti-terrorist police took place in three towns around Paris. Four of the six suspects are French, one is from Benin and the other from the Comoros Islands. They are all said to be aged in their twenties and thirties. They are thought to have been involved in armed robberies including a hold-up at a bank near the capital in April. Since the murders by one individual of seven people in Toulouse last year, several terrorist cells have been dismantled, according to the interior minister. France raised its domestic terror alert level after its military intervention in Mali.

Pray: that the authorities will continue to be successful in thwarting the terrorist activities. (Pro.2:7)

More: http://www.euronews.com/2013/06/25/french-police-swoop-on-islamist-terror-suspects/

Evangelical Christian believers account for only .8% of the population. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (1.5% and .9%) have more Evangelicals per capita. Church attendance is one of the lowest in Europe (6-8%). 80% of French people have never owned or even seen a Bible. There are approximately 50,000 full-time practitioners of occult arts (tarot, fortune telling, psychic healing, etc) who easily outnumber the 35,000 full-time Christian workers in France. Muslims make up approx 10% of France’s population - the highest percentage in any European country. (Source: Operation World) Secularization has become a movement in France whose sole objective is to confine faith and its expression to the private sphere. But light that shines where it is the darkest shines the brightest.

Pray: for the Kingdom of God to mature and produce fruit in France in 2013. (Ps.85:6)

More: http://www.prayforfrance.org/whyfrance

Jean Leonetti, Mayor of Antibes, says ‘NO’ to Muslim demands for sharia compliance in schools. He firmly rejected Muslim parents’ demand for the abolition of all pork products in Antibes school cafeterias, adding that Muslims must adapt to France, its customs, its traditions, and way of life, not the other way around. Muslims must understand that it is for them to change their lifestyle, not the French who so generously allowed them into their country. The French are not racist or xenophobic, they accepted many immigrants before Muslims (while the reverse is not true as Muslims do not readily accept non-Muslim foreigners on their soil.)

Pray: that Muslims would learn to live in France adopting the nations ways..

More: http://europenews.dk/en/node/72566

A French mayor is facing up to five years in prison and a fine of up to £63,000 for declining to carry out a same-sex marriage. Jean-Michel Colo, a mayor in South West France, rejected a wedding application from two men and says he stands by his decision. But under French law, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation can be punishable by up to half a decade in prison and up to a 75,000 Euro fine. He could also be removed from office, or face suspension over the move – which is being supported by his deputies. Mayor Colo said while it is up to individuals what they do in the privacy of their own homes, ‘if you ask me as the mayor to support it, then I am very uncomfortable with it’. Speaking to a French newspaper, the French Interior Minister said elected officials ‘who do not respect the laws of the republic will risk significant sanctions’. (See Prayer Alert 17-2013)

Pray: for Jean-Michel that he will be given the strength to stand by his decision and receive support for his beliefs. (Lev.20.13a)

More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/france-mayor-faces-jail-for-gay-wedding-refusal/

Three suspected Islamist militants arrested in southern France appeared to be planning an attack in the days ahead, the Paris prosecutor said on Monday, the anniversary of an a-Qaeda-inspired shooting that rocked France. Police found weapons and explosives at the home of one of the suspects in the town of Marignane, near Marseille, and intercepted communications between the men suggested they were close to going into action, prosecutor Francois Molins said. The three men, who were taken in for questioning last week with a fourth man who was later released, were to be placed under formal investigation later on Monday. ‘The investigation showed we were faced with a veritable laboratory for making improvised explosive devices and, even if we had no evidence of a precise plan, the messages exchanged by the participants suggested the timetable could be accelerated,’ Molins told reporters.

Pray: that all those with radical militant ideas will be confounded. (Job.6:23)

More: http://news.yahoo.com/arrested-islamists-suspected-planning-attack-france-133743655.html

Ten years ago religious symbols were banned from state schools, this included girls' headscarves. A French protest group called Mamans Toutes Égales has blocked school coaches, boycotted outings and staged street demonstrations in protest of mothers in headscarves being barred from school trips, saying it’s an attack on freedom and democracy in state schools. ‘They seem to want to wipe Muslim women off the landscape,’ said an activist. A Paris suburb suffered two nights of rioting and car-burning at the weekend after a police identity check on a French woman wearing a full-face Muslim veil raised questions about the law banning the niqab from public places. Tension has been rising for months over the broader issue of Muslim headscarves, including the simple hijab. The current Socialist government is considering tightening laws on standard headscarves, despite France having some of the hardest-hitting legislation on veils in Europe. The French Republic is built on a strict separation of church and state.

Pray: against further violent clashes and for positive dialogue that leads to equality for all private beliefs rather than stigmatism any religion. (Ro.12:17-18)

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/22/frances-headscarf-war-attack-on-freedom

The atmosphere is like a pop concert in the Montparnasse area of Paris. Hundreds of young people sing catchy songs, waving their arms in the air, while a group plays booming music on stage. This isn't a pop gig. The Australian-born Pentecostal church ‘Hillsong’ planted a Paris church in 2005 and its congregation’s grown from a few dozen people to around 900 at each of its two weekend services conducted in French and English. On a recent Sunday, the 1,000-seat Théâtre Bobino (where the church holds its main services) was nearly full. This youthful, enthusiastic, multi-ethnic crowd is in sharp contrast to the diminishing French Catholic churches and represents the rise of the evangelical movement as a whole in a country that is officially secular. Census figures report 600,000 French members of evangelical churches, with 460,000 regularly practicing their faith - a ten-fold increase from 1950.

Pray: God will reproduce His message of truth and life to the youth of Paris across all of France. (Ro.10:14)

More: http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5465